Energy and Climate Change News for April 19th; Obama Wants Senate to Tackle Climate Bill

April 19, 2010

Obama Wants Senate to Tackle Climate Bill After Wall St. Reforms 

President Obama expects the Senate to move on to comprehensive energy and climate change legislation once it finishes work over the next few weeks on Wall Street regulatory reform.
“This is one of these foundational priorities from my perspective that has to be done soon,” Obama said of the climate bill Friday during a White House meeting of outside experts helping the administration on economic recovery plans.

Obama predicted several weeks of Senate debate on the financial reform package, with lawmakers working behind the scenes on a climate bill that must get support from industry if it has any chance of passing.

“There has been a good bipartisan process taking place that would put a price on carbon,” Obama said. “The one thing will be for the business community to be with us on this.”
Obama said he expected a tough political fight cobbling together the votes on the Senate bill, which lead authors John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have dubbed the “American Power Act.” The Senate trio plans to release the bill next Monday.
“As Tip O’Neill said, ‘All politics is local,’” Obama said in reference to the former House speaker. “Individual members of Congress may be worried about the impact in the short term of these moves.
“I fear that if we don’t take these steps soon, we’re going to have some big, big problems,” Obama added.
John Doerr, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, prompted Obama’s remarks about the nexus between economic recovery and energy issues. “Some sort of Kerry-Graham-Lieberman idea is a very promising way to do this and is very important,” Doerr said.
Senior White House aides have been gearing up behind the scenes for the Senate debate by meeting with all sides of the energy debate. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and Carol Browner, the president’s top staffer on energy and climate issues, will host U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue tomorrow as part of the administration’s ongoing courtship of the nation’s largest industry voice.
“They asked for the meeting,” Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Friday.

Source: http://climateprogress.org/2010/04/19/energy-and-climate-change-news-for-april-19th-obama-wants-senate-to-tackle-climate-bill-east-asia-and-china-can-halt-co2-emissions-growth-global-warming-reduces-grain-output-in-india/